Direct Organogenesis from Cotyledonary Node Explants of Cucurbita pepo (L.)—An Important Zucchini Type Vegetable Crop

Muruganantham Mookkan^1,2,3

¹Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science, ARO Volcani Center, POB6, Bet Dagan, Israel.
²Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA, USA.
³Present Address and Correspondence: Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2015.61018                

Abstract

Cotyledonary node explants from 3 - 5-d-old seedling derived explants of Cucurbita pepo (L.) produced multiple shoots in Murashige and Skoog (MS) salts B5 vitamins containing medium in the presence of N6-benzylamino-purine BAP 1 mg/L + Thidiazuron TDZ 0.05 mg/L. After 4 weeks explants were subcultured to medium containing MS salts B5 Vitamins BAP 0.5 mg/L, Gibberellic acid GA3 1 mg/L and L-Glutamine 15 mg/L. Periodic excision of regenerated shoots from the explants increased shoot efficiency during subculture. The combination of L-Glutamine with BA and GA3 significantly increased the shoot proliferation. Elongated shoots were excised from shoot clumps and transferred to rooting medium containing indole-3-butyric acid (IBA, 1.0 mg/L). The rooted plants were hardened in small pot containing standardized garden soil, well developed plant transferred to greenhouse and survival rate was 85%.

Keywords

Cucurbita pepo, Zucchini, Cotyledonary Node, Subculture

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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